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Summer Visit - 2025 - IMPULS

The summer visit to Caltech is 4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The IMPULS team came to visit in July 2025. The 4 core team educators attended, plus 6 students.

Quotes

  • The work we carried out during the visit can NOT be done online. Having each other right there on hand to talk through and experience the work together was invaluable. It was not enough time, frankly. [We] are much closer and more at ease collaborating than we were before the trip. We feel comfortable calling each other and talking through the results we are getting.
  • Absolutely we did real astronomy; we were looking at data and analyzing and categorizing things that others may not have done in the past or may have done less hands-on which makes me feel like a real astronomer because we are taking data and giving it purpose that others have not done before!
  • [Advice to others:] Be ready to work! I have truly enjoyed being a part of the NITARP experience. I have such a better understanding of not only how to access data, but how to interpret it.
  • I still get confused about the variety of light curves, and trying to decipher what is going on with a star by looking at the light curves and SEDs, but working together with my students and the rest of the team I am getting the hang of it!
  • The absolute best thing about the trip was doing the light curve analysis together as a team; working and talking together about the science, our own work as teachers, and how the two relate.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2025 - IMPULS